Dr. Prinsky

English 1102

Quiz on Chs. 4 (“Characters”) & 10 (“Theme”) of RJ8

Directions: Fill out the answers to the following on a Scantron (882) form, using pencil to bubble in your answers. Make sure your name, the class name, and the subject (which is the title of this quiz: Quiz on RJ8, Chs. 4 & 10) are supplied by you on the Scantron form. Do not neglect Prinsky’s Notes and Questions, as well as assigned material from the textbook. For any unfamiliar terms, check the glossary in RJ8, the index to the composition handbook, or your collegiate dictionary. For a different and perhaps superior views of the paintings reproduced in this and other textbooks, go to google.com on the Internet, click the “tab” for “images,” and then type in the artist’s name and artwork’s title, using the plus sign and quotation marks (e.g.: Edgar Degas + “The Absinthe Drinkers”).

1. According to the opening of Ch. 4, character in fiction "is an extended verbal representation of a human being," including the inner self and the: (a) outer self (b) spiritual self (c) authorial self (d) written self

2. According to Ch. 4, it is important for the reader to determine the character's major: (a) actions (b) circumstances (c) traits (d) stereotypes

3. According to Ch. 4, a character in a story that is relatively fully developed and who changes or alters is called: (a) flat (b) round (c) hero (d) stock

4. According to Ch. 4, the chief character in a story should be called: (a) stock (b) representative (c) hero (d) protagonist

5. According to Ch. 4, the flat character in a story is usually: (a) static (b) dynamic (c) changeable (d) contemptible

6. As explained in Ch. 4 (pp. 127-31, especially 129-31), character is disclosed in fiction in how many main ways: (a) three (b) four (c) five (d) six

7. According to Ch. 4, readers may expect a character to have all the following criteria except which one: (a) verisimilitude (b) probability (c) plausibility (d) likability

8. In Ch. 4, the Renaissance portrait bust or portrait sculpture of Lorenzo de Medici strongly conveys all the following character or personality traits except which one: (a) determination (b) thoughtfulness (c) pride (d) spirituality

9. In Ch. 4, details of the portrait sculpture conveying the character traits (as per the immediately preceding question) are all the following except which one: (a) the amount of eye opening (b) the lines of the tunic (c) the position of the eyebrows (d) the line of the mouth (e) the conformation of the hat

10. Lorenzo de Medici probably wanted to convey what main idea by the portrait sculpture, as related to his position in Florence, Italy: (a) “can do” (b) “let’s work together” (c) ”don’t mess with me” (d) “live free or die” (e) “got milk?”

11. In Ch. 4, as stated explicitly within the text of the short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the narrator’s first name is: (a) Amy (b) Suyuan (c) Beverly (d) Jing-Mei (e) not given

12. From outside the short story, in the rest of the book The Joy Luck Club, the narrator’s surname is revealed to be: (a) Chong (b) Hsu (c) Tan (d) Woo (e) Smith

13. The age of the narrator when she tells the story is: (a) pre-teens (b) teens (c) twenties to thirties (d) forties to fifties

14. The age of the narrator when she tells the story creates all the following except which one: (a) a complex presentation of herself (as both child and adult) (b) some implicit criticism of her younger self (c) self-pity about her oppressed childhood (d) a divided attitude about her mother

15. For the narrator’s mother, a key, repeated word (a motif) representing her idea of success for the narrator is: (a) prodigy (b) thrift (c) heritage (d) school

16. The narrator’s mother often uses which Chinese expression (a motif) to the daughter, with reference to success, meaning “you watch”: (a) Shieh Shieh (b) Ni Kan (c) Boka Shee (d) Mapu Tofu

17. As portrayed in the story (plus the background of the whole book, as given in the whole book’s title and explained in Prinsky’s Notes and Questions on the story), the mother’s actions have all the following motivations except which one: (a) her own misfortunes in China (b) her desire for her family’s assimilation in America (c) a wish for her daughter’s self realization (d) the need for the family to retain as its heritage the use of the Chinese language

18. When the mother speaks Chinese (though the narrator uses English words), the mother’s language is characterized by: (a) the omission of any figures of speech (b) the lack of mistakes in her grammar and usage (c) kinder feeling toward the daughter than when speaking English (d) an increased sense of femininity

19. As portrayed in the story (including at the talent show), the relationship between the narrator and the narrator’s father is: (a) looser toward her than her mother’s (b) about the same toward her as her mother’s (c) stricter toward her than her mother’s (d) not even hinted at

20. If the narrator had been male rather than female, the father’s attitude toward the narrator’s successes in life and future (especially given the ethnic or national group of the family) would probably have been: (a) looser than in the story (b) about the same as in the story (c) stricter than in the story (d) not possible to deduce or infer

21. As shown in the story’s second section (pars. 4-11) and comparable passages later, the values and goals of both mother and daughter are strongly influenced by: (a) school trends (b) guide books (c) Chinese history (d) American media

22. The profusion of magazines in the apartment of the narrator’s family (pars. 12-16) reveals about the mother all of the following except which one: (a) her very hard work at her job (b) her concern about her daughter’s future (c) her exhausted inability to maintain perfect housekeeping at home (d) her commitment to single-minded study to achieve a goal

23. The passage in the Bible that the narrator remembers (pars. 13-18) has the symbolic relevance of relating to the concept of: (a) obedience to parents (b) marriage and romance (c) preserving one’s cultural heritage (d) wealth and success

24. In the story’s third section (pars. 12-20), the narrator comes to a decision of defining herself through action that is: (a) constructive (b) feminine (c) artistic (d) negative (e) lascivious

25. The narrator’s reference to a little Chinese girl being “proudly modest like a proper Chinese child” (par. 24) makes use of the figure of speech (see Ch. 17 of RJ8, as well as your collegiate dictionary): (a) oxymoron or paradox (b) simile (c) hyperbole or exaggeration (d) personification or prosopopoeia (e) chiasmus or antimetabole

26. The figure of speech referred to in the immediately preceding question helps convey Chinese valuing of all the following except which one: (a) measured humility (b) respect to elders (c) self esteem (d) physical purity

27. Part of the symbolic relevance of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (via the reference to Anitra’s Dance [par. 29]) to the short story, is: (a) the condemnation of premature romantic escapades (b) the censuring of a child’s laziness by a mother (c) the glorification of the arts, especially dance (d) the advocating of zeal in formal learning

28. Mr. Chong, the narrator’s piano teacher (pars. 30-48), is characterized most vividly by his: (a) calmness (b) diligence (c) obsession (d) uxoriousness (e) concupiscence

29. The trait referred to in the immediately preceding question has all the following overtones except which one: (a) villainous (b) humorous (c) foolish (d) pitiable (e) ironic

30. The tone and intent of the complaints of the narrator’s mother and Lindo Jong about their daughters (pars. 44-47) are all the following except which one: (a) competitive (b) laudatory (c) boastful (d) angry

31. The tone of the narrator’s remark about sisters (par. 44) is: (a) ironic (b) solemn (c) apprehensive (d) loving

32. The narrator herself remarks (more than once) that when young she focused on which particular facet of success: (a) achievement (b) accolade (c) affluence (d) analgesia

33. Given the concentration of the narrator herself on a particular facet of success (e.g., par. 51), her statement about being determined to put a stop to her mother’s foolish pride (par. 48) has about it a tone of which psychological process: (a) projection (b) repression (c) rationalization (d) sublimation

34. Auntie Lindo’s smile is “stiff-lipped” and Waverly’s expression is “sulky” (par. 53) because of: (a) joyfulness (b) dyspepsia (c) sentimentalism (d) competitiveness

35. Mr. Chong’s comment about the narrator’s talent-show performance (par. 55) is mainly: (a) hubristic (b) artistically acute (c) torpid (d) comically inaccurate

36. The conversation between the mother and child about the narrator’s talent-show performance (par. 55) echoes but inverts an earlier conversation between the narrator and: (a) her mother (b) Auntie Lindo (c) her father (d) Waverly (e) Mr. Chong

37. Part of the symbolic relevance of the Schumann pieces referred to in the short story (pars. 50, 94, 95) is: (a) the narrator’s dual perspective as young child in the past and young adult in the present (b) the mother’s vacillation in her goal for the narrator’s future (c) the father’s and mother’s intense disagreement about their daughter (d) the dreams of the piano teacher for his own life

38. Part of the symbolic relevance of the Puccini opera referred to in the short story (par. 57) is: (a) the lasting influence of parental upbringing on children’s lives (b) the interference by sexual desire in achieving a goal (c) the need sometimes to fly away from a problem (d) the encounter of Asian culture with Occidental culture

39. Part of the symbolic reference of the Rimsky-Korsakov music referred to in the short story (par. 57) is the connection to the concept of: (a) passionate rebellion (b) energetic productiveness (c) unfettered sexuality (d) religious awareness

40. The odd language of the narrator in referring to one of the talent-show contestants as “the breasted girl” (par. 57) conveys something about all the following except which one: (a) a physical characteristic of the narrator’s race and gender (b) the awareness by the young about persons who are different (c) the narrator’s adoption of the male point of view (d) the pre-adolescent physical development of many of the contestants

41. The father’s comment about the narrator’s talent-show performance (par. 60) could be characterized primarily as: (a) exasperated (b) evasive (c) ebullient (d) effusive (e) egregious

42. Possibly, as indicated by the last three sections of the short story, the the story’s most complex symbol, gathering in it ideas about the narrator, the narrator’s mother, the relationship between the narrator and her mother, the relationship between the narrator and her father, and many other points is: (a) the family piano (b) the collection of bathroom magazines (c) Waverly’s chess trophies (d) Stanford University (e) San Francisco Bay (f) Amy Tan’s inverted triangular hat

43. According to Roberts and Jacobs in Ch. 9 ("Idea or Theme"), the difference between merely identifying a subject or topic in a short story (or literary work) versus enunciating an idea or theme in a short story (or literary work) is the key ingredient: (a) uppercase or lowercase letters (b) assertion (c) intelligence (of the reader) (d) metaphor

44. According to R & J in Ch. 10, often in prose fiction (and literature), themes or ideas are associated with: (a) values (b) desires (c) fears (d) entertainment

45. R & J in Ch. 10 warn novice readers to avoid confusing ideas or themes with mere: (a) characters in the short story (b) symbols (c) plot summary (d) details of the author's biography

46. In Ch. 10, R & J, to illustrate and explain how the totality of a short story (or literary work) can represent ideas and themes, use and reproduce the painting: (a) Matisse’s Icarus (b) Breughel’s Peasant Dance (c) David’s The Death of Socrates (d) Picasso's Guernica

47. As R & J explain in Ch. 10, the painting they use to show how a work of art (visual or literary) as a whole can represent themes or ideas, has as its theme: (a) women have hidden mysteries and allure beneath calm exteriors (b) even lowerclass life can have beauty out in the natural world (c) God's messages and messengers can be perceived by the pure of heart (d) war causes the horror and suffering of human and animal physical and psychological fragmentation